Cosby guilty in sexual assault retrial
Entertainer lashes out at DA in courtroom
NORRISTOWN — A jury on Thursday found Bill Cosby guilty of drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand, a verdict that delivered the first celebrity conviction of the #MeToo era and the likely final blow of a career-ending scandal fueled by dozens of women who accused the entertainer of being a sexual predator.
The decision, after 14 hours of jury deliberations and in a second trial on the charges, stirred audible sobs of relief from some of his accusers in the packed Montgomery County courtroom and prompted celebration outside of it and on social media.
As the jury forewoman read out three “guilty” verdicts — one for each count of aggravated indecent assault for the 2004 attack — the spokesman for the 80-year-old entertainer held his head in his hands, but the defendant stared sullenly down at the defense table.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele said the character that helped cement Mr. Cosby’s image — the sweater-wearing family man, Dr. Cliff Huxtable, on his 1980s sitcom “The Cosby Show” — portrayed him as “a public moralist” but the verdict exposed his private life as a serial sexual predator.
“He used his celebrity, he used his wealth, he used his network of supporters to help him conceal his crimes,” Mr. Steele said later at a news conference. “Now, we really know today who was really behind that act, who the real Bill Cosby was.”
Mr. Cosby is expected to be sentenced within 90 days. He could receive up to 10 years in prison on each count.
Minutes after the verdict was read, Mr. Steele asked Judge
Steven T. O’Neill to immediately imprison him, Mr. Cosby, who had remained silent throughout the trial, lashed out, calling Mr. Steele an “asshole” and later saying, “I’m sick of him.”
As the prosecutor discussed the verdict, Ms. Constand stood off to the side and, as she has done for years, chose not to speak. But for the 45-year-old Canadian massage therapist who first dragged Mr. Cosby’s crimes into public view 14 years ago, the verdict meant long-awaited vindication.
Despite receiving a nearly $3.4 million civil settlement from Mr. Cosby over the same allegations, her story had twice been rebuffed — first by prosecutors in 2005 who doubted she could stand up to courtroom scrutiny and then last year by another jury in Pittsburgh that deadlocked on her claims, prompting a mistrial.
“She came here 14 years ago for justice,” her longtime lawyer Dolores Troiani said. “I am happy to say that justice was delayed, but it was not denied.”
Outside the Norristown courthouse, other accusers wasted no time making their voices heard. Many had hailed the case as one that in many ways stood at the vanguard of the MeToo movement and shone a spotlight on the role sexual entitlement, a scandal-hungry media and Hollywood’s casting couch culture played in the ruin of a comedy icon.
“I feel like my faith in humanity has been restored,” said Lili Bernard, one of Mr. Cosby’s accusers, as she fought back tears and helicopters buzzed overhead while a crowd of competing demonstrators amassed shouting, “Women’s lives matter!”, “Free Bill!” and “Black power!”
Amid the chaos, lawyer Gloria Allred read statements from her clients who were among some of the other Cosby accusers to testify at trial.
“I am overwhelmed with joy, relief, and gratitude,” read one from Janice BakerKinney, who testified that Mr. Cosby drugged and attacked her in 1982 in Reno. “Joy that justice has been served. Relief that this toxic chain of silence has been broken and we can now move forward with our heads held high.”
Whether the case is truly done is unclear. Emerging from the courthouse with his client, lead defense lawyer Tom Mesereau said this “fight is not over” and vowed an appeal.
Judge O’Neill denied Mr. Steele’s request to revoke Mr. Cosby’s $1 million bail, but ordered him to remain in his Montgomery County mansion unless he receives court approval to travel.
Mr. Steele said he would seek to make the entertainer pay the costs of both trials; the first one cost the county more than $219,000.
“He was talking about $3.38 million being a paltry sum or merely a nuisance,” the district attorney said.
But immediately after the verdict, Mr. Cosby’s financial prospects took an immediate hit.
Bounce TV, a network that caters to black viewers, announced it had pulled all reruns of “The Cosby Show.”
Jurors in this trial heard from five other Cosby accusers — including supermodel Janice Dickinson — each of whom alleged that Mr. Cosby approached them as mentors, knocked them out with pills and then took advantage of them.
“I called each of them after the verdict,” Mr. Steele said. “I was not able to talk to all of them, but they know what they’ve done and they know what their courage helped all of us do.”
Mr. Cosby, too, had revamped his defense strategy. His new team of lawyers — led by Mr. Mesereau and attorneys Kathleen Bliss and Becky S. James — came to court determined to hold nothing back.
During her blistering closing argument, Ms. Bliss lobbed scathing attacks at each of the accusers, dismissing them as either “failed starlets,” liars or sexually promiscuous gold diggers.
But the defense reserved its most aggressive assault for Ms. Constand, painting her relationship with their client as part of a long con — one that eventually secured the 2006 settlement and one they said she laid out in detail to a Temple colleague who testified that Ms. Constand once said she wanted to extort a celebrity by fabricating sexual assault claims.
Still, over two days of testimony this month, Ms. Constand stuck to the story she has been telling for more than a decade — that Mr. Cosby invited her in early 2004 to his Cheltenham mansion, gave her three blue pills and then assaulted her when she was paralyzed and powerless to resist.
Mr. Steele praised Ms. Constand’s strength and said he hoped “others who have been victimized can see that courage and can see where it gets.”